Two women, different backgrounds, one goal: Two women, from completely opposite economic, social and cultural

-- Two women, from completely opposite economic, social and cultural backgrounds, earned common ground during the early days of World War II to set a path for women in aviation that would steamroll into women's roles today that are without boundaries. Jacqueline Cochran was born in 1906 in a cotton-fields-and-sawmill small town in western Florida. It is said that she grew up in such poverty, that she never owned a pair of shoes until she was nine. As she grew, she loved the sight of an airplane, and she firmly believed that one day she would fly. In 1932 she earned her pilots license, and she not only flew, she soared. At the time of her death in 1980 she held more international speed, distance and altitude records than any other pilot, male or female. Nancy Harkness Love was born in 1914, the daughter of a wealthy physician, in Houghton, Mich. By the time she was 16 she e...